Someone once said that the goal of life is living in agreement with nature. This is precisely what nature photography attempts to capture - the basic beauty and creation of Mother Nature. From landscapes, underwater and night photography, to flowers, animals and birds, nature photography is a broad field encompassing many different areas. But one aspect that is common to all fields of photography is having good quality equipment, and having the right kind of equipment.

Even to a novice, it is obvious that underwater photography is different from other types of nature photography genres such as wildlife or landscape photography, but what might not be as apparent is that the latter two are also distinct and thus requires a variation of techniques and different types of equipment as well. Many professional photographers have multiple lenses and filters, specifically for a specific aspect or look. This article will look at the different types of lenses and their most common usage in the world of nature photography.

There is no such thing as having the “right” or “wrong” lens, however some lenses work better under some conditions, depending on what you are trying to capture and how you want to capture it. If you are photographing landscapes for example, a good lens to have would be a wide-angle lens. Wide-angle lenses have a wider angle of view, but focal length is sacrificed (shorter focal length). What this means essentially is that because wide angle lenses have a larger angle of view and less magnification, we have to move closer to the subject to get them to be the same size in the frame. So what purpose do they have in nature photography, you ask? Wide-angle lenses are good when shooting buildings because you often cannot fit the whole building into the picture with a regular lens. Candid or street photography is also a good way to optimize the benefits of a wide-angle lens, although many people swear by the telephoto lens for this kind of shot.

The telephoto lenses have a focal length of 100 to 300 mm, the longer focal length provides greater degree of magnification. Telephoto lenses are mostly used to capture objects or actions that appear far away, which is often the case in nature photography (you don’t want to get too close to your subject, especially if your subject weighs ten times your weight, and can eat you). Telephoto lenses also visually compress space, making objects seem as close as they appear. Telephoto lenses are a must have when it comes to practically any field in nature photography, because it allows you to zoom in for expressive pictures of distant subjects without disturbing them.

Shopping for equipment of any kind can be a very stressful endeavor, especially with the amount of choices available. Many beginner photographers view the camera and lenses as the most important aspect of nature photography, ignoring the importance of filters altogether. Filters allow film and digital camera to see things more like our eyes sees them. The range of brightness that film and digital sensors can record is far less than what the human eye is capable of – and this is where filters come in handy. For any novice, filters are a tough concept to grasp. Nowadays with the proliferation of digital cameras, filtering can be done digitally through the computer. Many professional, hard-core photographers scoff at this idea, and see no other way to filter than the good old manual way.

Hopefully this article provides you with some information to get started. Having good equipment is one factor to nature photography, but patience is another. In the wilderness you are the intruder, don’t disturb the area – leave it the way you found it. Don’t try to force a “good” picture either, and remember you do not control Mother Nature - Mother Nature controls you!

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